The Piper System of Blade work hails from the streets of Cape Town, South Africa. This system came about due to extensive research into what the criminal gangs were using in Cape Town during knife attacks. Nigel February is the founder along with pioneer Lloyd De Jongh. This is a highly aggressive system with African roots. While totally African as explained to me Cape Town had a lot of Indonesians and Malaysians and some Silat like movement is also within Piper.

A few day’s ago I was sitting at home when the phone rang and my good friend John Bednarski from Chicago was on it. John teaches Tatlo Pusaka Senjato in Chicago and is a long time Filipino Martial Arts practitioner. If you are around the Chicago area please go check him out! Anyways, John let me know that a friend of his from Dubai via Cape Town was coming to Vegas and that if we could get together I would have an opportunity to experience Piper directly from one of the sources. Now, I am always interested in any martial experience I can get and especially when it comes to edged weaponry. So it was simply a no brainer to answer Lloyd’s call and meet up at the Venetian here in Las Vegas for a some food, drinks and training.

If you have never been to the Venetian you need to experience it as it truly is one of the world’s great Hotel & Casino resorts. Absolutely some of the best restaurants are to be found there. So, Lloyd and I had some great food and drink and then headed up to his hotel room for an introduction to the Piper System. I can honestly say I have not observed this same movement anywhere else. There are some similarities with some Silat based systems I have been involved with but they are very small. This system truly has a unique intense feel to it and obviously an African feel to it. Since I have a trained eye for blade movement I rarely see anything exceptionally new that I have not witnessed before. From Lloyd’s introduction I can honestly say there were some things that I have not seen before. A lot of movement, mixed well with distractions so that one would be extremely confused as to where the knife attack was going to come from. Anyone not well-trained would be very confused dealing with a Piper trained practitioner and even very well-trained people would have their hands full if not be eviscerated. Bottom line the Piper System appears to have a lot to offer to those practicing it. It is a brutal system.

I thought I would post some video footage of Piper:

Nigel February

Lloyd De Jongh

The above is very similar to what I witnessed last night but even more up close and personal to get the true feeling of Piper. We trained in close as the reality of an edged encounter it will be very close and personal. The Okapi knife a cheap South African throw away street knife was used and we trained with a live blade.

Okapi Knife

Lloyd also took the time to show me the unarmed side of piper utilizing the same movements. As well as some counters to this aggressive, intense system of blade work.

After meeting Lloyd I could not help but like him. Brother’s of the blade generally make fast friends and I am looking forward to training and collaborating in the future!

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About Brian VanCise

Hi my name is Brian R. VanCise and my passion is the Martial Sciences. I have trained almost my entire life in the pursuit of martial excellence and I teach a world class curriculum in Las Vegas, Nevada and my good friend Gary Haffey runs our IRT Training Hall in Alma, Michigan. View my website at: www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com
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Contact us at: 702-326-3622